WARLOCK in WotLK Classic: Was It Any Good Though?

Catch up fast with the best leveling guide made by Classic's top speedrunners. I've done Loremaster of Northrend 3 times using this, can confirm works very well. Guides for Dragonflight also available! www.restedxp.com/?ref=WillE Use Code: WILLE for 5% off!
Shadow bolt enthusiasts unite! Today we take a look at how the Warlock evolves during WotLK Classic. Spoiler: There are more spells than just shadow bolt and seed of corruption that are relevant now. But how are they overall though?
Let's find out in: WARLOCK in WotLK Classic: Was It Any Good Though?
► Patreon: / willemmo
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:13 - The Warlock
2:12 - What's New Baseline?
5:51 - Affliction Talent Changes | PvE
9:40 - Demonology Talent Changes | PvE
12:54 - How Do We Expect The Warlock To Perform In PvE Overall?
14:58 - Warlock in WotLK Arena | PvP (Affliction, Destruction)
19:12 - Warlock Tier Sets
20:47 - Conclusion
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Songs Used:
► WoW OST
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#wotlk #wow #mmorpg

[@WillEmmo]

Catch up fast with the best leveling guide made by Classic's top speedrunners. I've done Loremaster of Northrend 3 times using this, can confirm works very well. Guides for Dragonflight also available! www.restedxp.com/?ref=WillE Use Code: WILLE for 5% off!

[@sogybritches]

love this video series WillE, dont even play or have the desire to play most classes but always fun to hear what changes and what they do.

[@SalopianYoutube]

Was waiting for this one!

[@AndyBlue297]

My favourite series on KZbin at the moment. Thanks for all the hard work Wille. Been following you for years, you’re the absolute go-to for WoW classic stuff!

[@Ryan_hey]

Such a great class in WOTLK. Destruction really comes into its own flavor, demo finally has something interesting, and affliction gets some very nice additions.

[@Moonlakes]

destruction is pvp demo is a walking raidbuff and affli is for the big depsi. the upside: every single spec is fun to play:D

[@huna7a]

@@Moonlakes destro in pve is unbeatable early on, then affliction takes the lead. Demo is usuable, yes, but only if you wanna be that guy that buffs the raid at the cost of personal damage output. It has great execution rotations but I find affliction just being superior. Played all three specs, Destro is the best for gearing up till 5.5 5.7 gs. Demonology is best as orc due to the racials, affliction can be anything but I prefer orc again. I do like undeads alot more but their racial suck in pve and you dont play wow unless you play both pve and pvp (this statement comes from me, initial pvp player).

[@cozo9963]

@@huna7a literally no one played destro in wotlk classic. Demo was killing it naxx. Demo is still able to pump near the top in ulduar. In togc is when the separation will happen with aff. Look at logs, not a single destro lock, its a pvp spec.

[@stefangeibla3824]

Awesome series! Amazing content as always Willie! 👌

[@nebulakh5739]

finally THE class! waited for this vid in your class series

[@weirdodude1173]

Looks great! Thumbs up for awesome videos.

[@trxe420]

I have mained Affliction Warlock since 2004 and I am not about to stop now, not in our moment to shine :) Excellent breakdown, I think you covered it well. Warlock is just a solid pick no matter what you are into in WOTLk.

[@grizzgreen6821]

Classic wrath has got me so nostalgic. Closest I've been to returning. I started in wrath, can't remember exact date. But for reference when I started mounts still required lv 30. By the time I got to 22 about a month and a half later I saw a lvl 20 riding a mount and he filled me in. Good times

[@jordanpatterson9405]

Looking forward to seeing you in game soon

[@GowtuGames]

Aaaah a Wrath Baby... 😉😋

[@baronbad5907]

Im thinking of having a go of it as well!

[@marcusortyl5056]

who asked

[@baronbad5907]

@@marcusortyl5056 you having a go?

[@hellodearjoey]

Played warlock at the start of tbcc then was asked to reroll healer by the guild. In the MH/BT phase I was back on the warlock and wishing I had been able to stay on it the whole time. Love the class and can't wait for wrath. Awesome video

[@xalian17]

The reason stealth detection was given to the Void Walker was two fold -- Blizz thought the Fel Hunter was used too much in PvP and players stopped using the Void Walker once the Fel Guard was unlocked in the Demo spec. The Fel Hunter was heavily deconstructed in WotLK due to countering mages (as ridiculous as that sounds, mages were at a low point in late TBC, so Blizz overcompensated for the next 2 expacs). This was the era of moving around key abilities instead of creating new ones.

[@markomancikas]

I love the fact that you have chosen Wintergrasp music for the background at the start. Those xylophones always hit hard and bring so much nostalgia

[@gertjedeballenman5174]

Yup. Same here

[@xmorte]

The new classic Wintergrasp LOL what a joke this will be

[@kkillgivein]

Its worth mentioning that Blizzard have fixed Demonic Pact for demo in wrath (I think this was announced after this video was made). Demonic Pact has been changed so it won't be over written by a weaker version, you can leave your pet in now and not worry about it

[@LittleRedRubberDuck]

Love this series. 😃

[@FleskPaddaProd]

I love warlock so much I fully leveled two of them, just for fun!

[@EnProto]

Me too! I find it extremely difficult to get into other classes after maining a warlock for so long.

[@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011]

Lock was my main back in Vanilla and BC. Still holds a special place in my heart. I would rock my SL/SL and full Demo spec with my Felguard. I still remember trying to solo a pretty hard quest in SMV and this Rogue popped up and joined. My Felguard tanked. I pretty much healed him and the rogue was DPS. I know it doesnt sound like much, but after quite a few solo attempts, and everything falling into place then, it was pretty memorable for me.

[@Autonimaatio]

These are the exact kind of cool things you could pull off during vanilla/TBC/WLK, I love the old world. Thank you for sharing! :)

[@dingo9356]

All the triggered DH players when Willie says Dh stole meta from warlocks.

[@SadBirbHours]

The only reason I played a DH in legion, after coming back from quitting in cata, was because I first made a warlock and realised the madmen had gotten rid of meta. Feelsbadman

[@xha8509]

Man i will eh hyped when priest will be covered! Great Series!

[@vjtheowl6091]

I mained destro/demo hybrid lock on WotLK PvE, I'm looking forward to try it out again!

[@brad1426]

I had *so* much fun back in the day with the teleport!

[@shaunybonny688]

Thumbs up as soon as I start the video, you just know what you can expect from WillE

[@Renry134]

Yerrrrrr a new video!!

[@novat9731]

To clarify some terminology Rolling = % dmg + crit modifiers staying on corruption even if refreshed, but NOT recasted. Snapping = spell power + Haste modifiers staying on corruption, even if the characters SP or haste changes mid dot duration. Refreshing, using the everlasting affliction talent, ''snaps'' the characters stats on to the dot. Re-calculating the damage from spell power, as well as the time between each tick of the dot. Rolling is why you stack Tricks of the trade, and potion of crit on the pull as well as that mage +3% crit buff. Snapping is why you prematurely refresh dots, either with a new cast (which removes rolling %dmg + %crit modifiers), or through other means (corruption and SW:P only) OR you intentionally DON'T refresh if you have a particularly powerful dot on target.

[@Mr_Edwards_1995]

I can’t remember was it wod they did away with snapping/ snap shotting? I remember waiting for my procs in arenas to dump UA and haunts and melting.

[@Dualities]

bunch of nonsense so he can talk a lot about the class eh probably didn't even play himself. like most youtubers. youtube and wotlk is big bussines right now

[@Paraclef]

With 600+ haste,corruption lasted 7 sec during 3.3 but it was bugged and could fade 4 sec before the timer.

[@warcraftreloaded]

Did you test tricks of the Trade snapshotting in beta? Others have tested trinkets and whatnot and found they don't snapshot. Haven't seen a video testing tricks yet though.

[@luce669]

Warlock was my first class when i started in late wotlk. I loved the fantasy of demonology, i love demon hunter but i also want metalock back

[@Andarath69]

Can't wait to play Affi. Always loved Aff locks.

[@Ebbzzor]

Nice vid. The 10% miss and 10% atk slow on voidwalker and succubus were already in TBC tho

[@SilhouetteWOW]

Good video :)

[@Ar1AnX1x]

watching Demo Lock PvP Montages during that time was really epic or Warrior Montages for some reason as far as I know Warriors and Warlocks had a good taste in music and their highlights were pretty lit this was back when with good gear you could melt people down if they didn't use their defensive CDs on time

[@Freshtildeath]

I hope you read this man, I understand you are here to inform, give honest opinions and be grounded to realistic scenarios, but sometimes It come off as pessimistic (which it's blizzard we are dealing with so who can blame you), But this video here got me pumped for Classic Wrath and the series you are doing, which makes this video more enjoyable than your other ones In my honest but unimportant opinion. Not to say your other videos aren't good because they are and I enjoy watching, but this one made me happy.. The feeling is optimistic and hopeful with an undertone of excitement in your voice and overall that's why I play wow, for fun and excitement not for the next biggest number on my screen be it dps or stat boost; to have fun and now wallow in the crap that is there. In other words this video made me actually excited for what is coming then make me sigh about days past or acknowledging my rose tinted glasses. I get enough let downs in the real world so seeing you talk and be excited about wrath makes me feel the same way.

[@a_tired_dad]

Mained hunter in tbc, now switched factions and lock is lvl 14. Leveling in Barrens with my bros is huge nostalgia.

[@EnProto]

Been playing lock since launch of vanilla so hyped to be going into LK ahhhbh

[@TheBugB]

These intros get me so hyped man

[@tlevesbranch3744]

Always loved the felguard, might roll a lock in wotlk

[@supernova743]

Thanks to dot snapshotting, if you cast drain soul on somebody at under 25% and they're healed you can continue the drain soul for extra dmg.

[@DeisFortuna]

I swear every DoT class in MMORPGs has that one mildly unintuitive interaction when it comes to their DoTs.

[@1bhitte]

I haven't seen this answered yet. What is the best class for casuals, low required gear to be effective, I doubt I'll be able to raid much if at all.

[@dalaraz1]

demonic pact is readjusted for classic btw,theres a post about it in wowhead,to make it easier to play around

[@commanderadur4264]

Destro is Viable in pve for the first two patches, basically nax and ulduar untill you get enough haste on gear to make Affliction really pop off.

[@cozo9963]

no one has played destro in any of those patches. its a pvp spec

[@kalsizzle]

any pserver andies know how locks dps is in ToC/ICC? I wanted to play mage but my guild wants me to play lock.

[@BrettCahill]

The new Willie series has become a tradition for classic expansions, it's part of the hype train

[@Ryoushi_Akanagi]

Always the most unpopular class despite NEVER actually being bad at all. Matter of fact it's the most consistently good/best spec in every expansion.

[@chrissymoltisanti9624]

The high complexity filters many

[@--46200]

I think I'm gonna main my belf lock into Wrath... I mained DK back in Retail but man I love how lock works in classic

[@JHunt91]

Hew WillE! Thanks for the series! Can you tell if there will be fraction change like in original Wotlk? =) Tanks m8!

[@Alijamaru]

Warlocks are really underrated, barely anybody plays them. There is 100s of Mages but very little Warlocks.

[@darylsdog9521]

Not anymore

[@sagebeer]

I didnt know they had all of these changes, i only went lock because they have two viable specs for pvp and pve at the same time.

[@cristhianmlr]

The concept of this show change, you know? I mean, I was here for the gnome, but he's not here anymore.

[@CT-ue4kg]

how many ppl does the lock need to summon now? does it work exactly like a meeting stone? (ie, needs 1 other?)

[@muratkaradag3703]

Warlock (aff) is the only class, in which you can fight countless of mobs and even hold and sustain incoming aggression and damage !

[@doxbrah]

very good for leveling, i leveled in classic as affliction instead of demonology it was much more fun

[@grip7777]

Was already gonna play this in Wotlk classic, now imma main it even harder.

[@Uzimaster1020]

Love this series and can see the time and effort you've put into each video, just wish you hadn't chosen such a clickbaity title for this series.

[@shtroizn]

3:39 - Good one! 🤣

[@aldinsadic6453]

I played Afflock in raid and Destro PvP in WotLK, it is my favorite version of WoW. Raiding felt like playing a rhythm game, haha.

[@dforce23]

This will be the first time I’ve returned to WoW since Legion and I’m beyond excited for it.

[@keyblades2]

Take me back to when this was new . Take me back to when my guild was together . Take me back lol

[@vonicon8526]

I like Pizza with a ton of extra cheese. Basically I like cheese with Pizza inside it.

[@paulnoone4834]

I oneshot a fly today

[@coachmcguirk6297]

You look like you eat it every day too

[@zachhawkins5005]

I played lock in original LK and it was FUN. That felguard bro

[@TastyScotch]

Looking forward to afflic! As much as topping meters hitting one button is, im looking forward to have a better reason for not parsing besides “i didnt get double lust” 😂

[@baronbad5907]

hell yeah lets get those blunts in rotation

[@manemperorofmankind8119]

HEY IMPORTANT Q!!! back in cata (i think) Demo lock had some cool spells that i used (even if they sucked) Carrion swarm and Demonic leap (i think, i think it also tied with hand of guldan) are they part of Wrath or did those come with Cata?

[@petercarioscia9189]

I play retail on and off after "quitting" in MoP, I've always mained warlock. At this point I can't even remember which expansion it was, I THINK BFA, but man, demonology was SO MUCH FUN! Summoning and sacking demons in huge batches. Destro in Cata was a lot of fun too. Destro and affliction were my go-tos in MoP Warlock is such a fun and interesting class to play. I always tried to have good numbers on the DPS meter, but I played more for fun, and didn't really care what was "optimal" and damn warlock is a joy to play.

[@Peleski]

Thanks gods warlock got some thought to playstyle in wrath. Getting top dps from spamming bolt was giving me imposter syndrome

[@Pershath08]

I ran Destro 100% of the time when I played through back in the day. Raided from Naxx through downing LK and loved every second. I was always in top 5 damage (behind rogues and mages of course) but once heroism went up I would dump 3 full bags of soul shards into soul fire. It was the most satisfying playstyle I’ve ever seen. Spent 10 minutes dueling my brother before the raid to farm up all the shards. Totally worth it.

[@DeisFortuna]

I know that balance and stuff is meant to be kept as close to the original as possible, but it would be cool if we could get, like, that glyph from MoP that let Warlock do a permanent Metamorphosis transformation, that'd be cool... (It would be even cooler if we could keep our appearance and transmog while doing it, something which bothered me about Retail DH Metamorphosis once I realized it.)

[@Manifibell]

Been healing all through classic so far, and the plan is to continue with druid/priest. But gotta say. Locks looks fun to play, it is a caster which is my prefered playstyle AND their tire sets actually looks good at all tiers! (Except tournament set, thats weird)

[@Kevin-bt4wb]

The 3 classes and specs I've played the most in WoW are Affliction Warlock, Shadow/Disc Priest and Resto Druid. If you like Shadow Priest and Resto Druid, you'd probably love Affliction Warlock. I always loved the playstyle of HoTs and DoTs.

[@Manifibell]

@@Kevin-bt4wb Good to hear 😄 I really love the dot and hot gameplay

[@cras17]

@@Kevin-bt4wb Shadow priest and resto druid have been my main for years. Always thought about trying out Aff lock.

[@jacobgarcia9175]

I missed out on vanilla classic, played 7 levels into SoM and boosted and got to 68 in TBC classic. But with wrath I plan on starting from a fresh server with everyone else and enjoying it. I feel like wrath has enough abilities to keep my attention and keep me engaged. There wasn’t much to do endgame casually in vanilla or TBC. With wrath I remember raiding in pugs successfully and just spamming heroics and pvp

[@bosssavage3325]

Rather take Glyph of Metamorphosis instead of Felguard for a 2nd Immo Aura. Especially if your pet only attacks half the time to keep up a snapshotted SP buff.

[@somejock4396]

The glyphs in these videos are only suggestions.

[@paupanades9957]

Second ommo aura is only 6 seconds long and its a global, felguard hits 24/7

[@christopherkappenman6435]

I just started to play a warlock and looking forward to demolock

[@jeremyguzman7936]

Im loving these videos, pls priest next!

[@Grizzlysnaps]

Any chance of some youtube streams as you lvl the DK? Cause lets be real, you are gonna lvl one and i enjoyed when you streamed bits of lvling your sham =)

[@powerplay074]

Playing warlock around the time of legion, nighthold, guldan etc and before that. I picked just the right moment affliction warlock become so op and imposible to die since very strong drain life in rotation. Apply dots, cast unstable affliction 2-3 times, reap souls(with the reaper lege) and drain life which make the dots absolutely go crazy. Ua chain hitting like 1.3m and other dots high as well. The drain life also heal so much you dont need healing. Aoe is crazy with seed. I remember nh the first boss. The scorpions warlock dmg absolutely crazy. I topped the meters of our guild and felt so good and powerfull as a dps. It made raiding more relaxing i performed well and didnt have to worry about dieng or poor dps. Unlike my previous char arms warrior it was fun but i kinda sucked at raiding also bad gear.

[@ericfiumano4694]

vanilla/tbc/wotlk: GDR "newest" expansion: ACTION GAME

[@ripley188]

Nice pvp clips

[@customconcern1]

Pretty sure this is what I wanna roll. Cheap mounts. Good farmers. And good quester. Fun raider.

[@dazzlebreak4458]

Also you get to nuke those pesky paladins if you roll Destruction

[@wisniamw]

@@dazzlebreak4458 how is that?

[@dazzlebreak4458]

@@wisniamw When I played as a Destruction/Demo Warlock in Wrath it was easy playing against paladins, especially Retribution (for me at least). Mages were a pain though.

[@CrixGuides]

WARLOCK GANG. Glad you're playing the master class. Loved the vid, altho you didnt talk about Destro in PvE. Don't sleep on Destro, or be surprised when it's BiS for a handful of fights.

[@tylerpetree4271]

YEAHHHH MY BOI...i said the same thing like damn he didnt even have a destro PVE section lol

[@michaelthomas4029]

@@tylerpetree4271 came to say this, its only a few percent behind and it more often than not scenarios it excels!!!

[@TKGxCOD]

Does Chaos Bolt go thru all DK absorbs as well?

[@durdentyler3292]

Reminder that Glyph of Quick Decay came with 3.3. So there's a chance it won't be aviable before ICC. And its a pretty important glyph,so there's a good chance locks will perform worse than pserver predictions(where the glyph is incorrectly aviable for progressions servers before ICC content).

[@johnathanflannagan2407]

Just started Wrath classic as an undead Lock a few days ago! Its been fun 🖤 I was gonna play in Era, but as of July 2023 the servers are super dead. Wrath isnt much better but there’s at least 20k people in one world.

[@cfalletta7220]

Thinking about this being my boosted char

[@xalian17]

Fel Armor + Demonic Aegis = Spirit Locks. Stacking priest gear increases spell power over 30%. Add Demonic Knowledge and Demon Pack will create a spell damage machine!

[@m00rtin4]

i remember playin abit of destro in wotlk. first time i really played lock overall it was really fun and i thought i did good dps.

[@blakewashburn8463]

no destro coverage?

[@cristhianmlr]

You watched the whole thing before posting?

[@astralfields]

@@cristhianmlr Only PvP destro is covered here, and WillE makes it seem like it wasn't viable in PvE which is definitely not the case. Granted, it deals less overall damage than Affliction and has less utility than Demo, but they're still quite decent. Destro locks have a simple and fun playstyle and offers strong on-demand burst damage, which is useful to have on quite a few encounters where specific targets need to be burned fast. And their overall damage isn't so bad, around the level of Ele shaman or Arms warrior.

[@mojotmn]

Is it still impossible to kill lock as an ele shaman due to broken resistance?

[@rennix2142]

Ayye 1:26 thats my vid i made it into a Wille vid mission accomplished!

[@nolenhammer21]

I heart Will E

[@bismark9923]

What dps classes are the most wanted in wrath?

[@Ritter1851]

Willie, I think suffering already does the reduced hit debuffs :0

[@Gluraqua]

As a warlock main in tbc i will play warlock again

[@andrewowens1043]

I'm super interested in what you have to say about Shadow Priest honestly. and... every other class.

[@kride456]

Hey, suffering had 10% hit chance debuff in TBC too :P!

[@Beranin]

Great video as always Wille but I think passing over destro as a pve spec is not doing it justice. While it won't be as good as the other 2 as the expansion progresses, it has great burst for short fights and will compete for damage in naxx. It also brings a raid buff if you're lacking a shadow priest.

[@heygek2769]

You mean the mana replenishment that is also provided by Prot Palas and Surv Hunters?

[@Dualities]

@@heygek2769 fel hunter buff

[@heygek2769]

@@Dualities that isn't exclusive to destro locks, is it?

[@Beranin]

@@Dualities Destro doesnt run fel hunter. It runs Imp.

[@Beranin]

@@heygek2769 It's not out of the realm of possibility for your 10 man not to have those

[@BigGlutesBigToots]

Came here to hear about destruction and uhh…yeah. It wasn’t there lol

[@audiofun1]

You did destro Locks dirty Willie. They do competitive dps in PVE against the other two specs

[@Sheeps856]

Glyph of Life Tap! So glad you mentioned it. Back in WotLK Naxx days, I won a small contest writing an article for a blog, I wrote something like 1000 words on that glyph, how and when to use it in your rotation, and gearing for it. Got sent the Imp in a Ball as a prize.

[@mcbaggins12]

Link?

[@primecalibur]

I misread the spellstone in vanilla and thought it only removed harmful magic effects, RIP world buffs that day lol.

[@EpilepticSnail]

From what I'm hearing, snapshoting dots isn't a thing on beta? Can you confirm?

[@santosmario5987]

I have one question. Mage or warlock? I cant choosee please help guys

[@andhen12]

So far in beta locks have been on the lower part of the dps meters. Surprising.

[@EnProto]

Nahhh, demo is putting in work

[@manolisathanasios]

2008 I was alt mage and lock hardcore destro and affliction was the best expansion for lock I enjoy so much pve world pvp and BG, but arena I had hard time vs good players hard to cast and if melee got you dk warrior shaman ench it is painful. I’m going to play mage priest this time

[@manolisathanasios]

And chaos bolt penetrating all def before even shadow priest last talent from shadow but in 3.5 they nerf

[@Stticka]

At 18:14 you on a lock with the imp named Yazyap... it throws me off hard bcuz my lock has the exact same imp name on my alliance benediction warlock. O.o

[@brandoncastellano1858]

I gotta say, I still love the intro and I’m honestly excited for the Cata version of it too.

[@EnProto]

Do you think they're gonna do Cata Classic?

[@brandoncastellano1858]

@@EnProto I hope. Cata wasn’t that bad. Necrotic Strike, Dark Simulcrum, Dark Transformation, Focus Fire, Buru the Gorger being tamable, etc. GOBLINS. Wonderful time. Either that or all the crendor videos. What a time.

[@mdaniel444]

I miss old demo lock. It was so much fun